Flag of Algeria

Flag origins

Algeria’s flag is green at the hoist and white on the fly, with a central red crescent and five-pointed star. Official explanations from the Foreign Ministry and embassy in Japan associate white with peace, love and goodness; green with hope for progress and a better future; red with effort and labor toward prosperity; and the crescent and star with Islam, the principal religion. Detailed specifications were established by law on April 25, 1963, the year after independence.

Flag story

The original designer is not conclusively established. Embassy materials introduce both an attribution to independence leader Messali Hadj’s wife in 1928 and a theory connecting it with Emir Abd al-Qadir, who resisted French colonial rule in the nineteenth century. Algeria came under French colonial rule in 1830, fought a fierce independence war from 1954 to 1962, and became independent on July 5, 1962. The green-white-red flag is closely connected with that struggle.

Editorial notes and references

Edited by ABELHA WORKS. The English text translates the administrator-edited Japanese description. Legends should be distinguished from documented history. General reference links do not substantiate every statement in the text.

• Algeria — general information on Wikipedia
• Japan MOFA: countries and regions (Japanese)

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